LEED Outlawed: Three States with Bans

The real reason behind the growing trend of bans on LEED Certification in state governments is the debate over wood sourcing. LEED only offers certified wood credits for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood. This gives FSC a virtual monopoly on sustainable wood in any building that seeks LEED certification along with credit for certified wood. However, LEED also gives credits for locally sourced material, so even non-certified wood can help to achieve LEED credits if it was obtained locally.

Georgia

This August, the state of Georgia banned LEED certification from state building projects. Instead of LEED, Governor Nathan Deal requires that green building standards for state building projects equally recognize three forestry standards: The Sustainable Forestry Initiative, The American Tree Farm System, and The Forest Stewardship Council. Governor Deal claims, “recognizing all forest certifications equally… will help create thousands of jobs.” This executive order effectively takes LEED off the table as an option for government building projects and state-funded colleges and universities.

Alabama

This past April (2013) in Alabama, legislation was pushed through the House and the Senate to outlaw LEED as the green building standard for public buildings. Their reason for doing so is that Alabama wants to include potentially less rigorous wood certification classifications of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the American Tree Farm System in its state buildings.

The irony is here that in LEED’s 110-point scale, one point is awarded for using FSC timber and another pointed is awarded for using locally harvested wood. Out of the 52 publicly funded LEED projects in Alabama, none included FSC timber in their construction. Instead, these projects all used locally sourced wood and were awarded a point. Alabama was in no way forced to use FSC-certified timber in order to achieve LEED certification.

Maine

Even in a state like Maine where the green building industry was thriving due to a LEED requirement, the rating system has faced challenges. In late 2011, Governor Paul Lepage reversed the requirement by issuing an executive order banning LEED. With Maine’s large timber industry, the majority of which does not meet FSC standards, it is no wonder Governor Lepage sought the support of the timber industry. The Bangor Daily News claims, “the move would allow the state’s forest products industry to be more competitive by getting ‘green’ certification from other programs.” Unfortunately, USGBC believes there aren’t really any other credible green building certifications out there.

The U.S. government is also experiencing pushback. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that U.S. Congress would disappoint, but indeed they are halting military spending on green buildings through H.R. 1540. Because of this bill, the Department of Defense can only fund LEED certification if it “imposes no additional cost.” On the other hand, the General Services Administration (GSA) requires LEED Gold certification for all new construction and major renovations. This puts Congress and the GSA at odds when it comes to LEED certification.

It seems as though the Federal Government and now local governments are succumbing to timber industry pressures to get a piece of the green building pie. Although there are no real requirements in LEED certification, the sector of the timber industry that does not meet FSC standards feels they are getting shut out of a growing market, so their solution is to shut down the market entirely.